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Thursday, 20 October 2016

Chakli / Crispy Savory Spirals / Diwali Snacks

Hindus
across the world celebrate Diwali festival with full zeal and enthusiasm. Diwali
falls on the no moon day of Hindu month of Kartika, on this day goddess Lakshmi
( the goddess of good luck, fertility and prosperity) is worshipped. Houses and
work places are thoroughly cleaned, renovated and decorated prior to the
festival and lit with oil lamps and lanterns in the evening to welcome goddess
Lakshmi. Apart from shopping and cleaning, decorating of houses and workplaces,
one bigger affair is preparing a scrumptious feast comprising of many sweet and
savory snacks for the occasion. These snacks are munched on during the
festivity and are distributed to family and friends. Nowadays due to busy
schedule, people often end up buying ready-made sweets and savouries from
market.

Chakli
is a deep fried savoury snacks which is spiral in shape with a spiked surface. In south India it is called Murukku. Maharashtrian prepare this chakali with a special flour called as Bhajani which
is made by roasting Rice with various lentils like Bengal Gram , Skinned and
split black gram ,Split and skinned green gram, coriander and cumin seeds and
then grinding it to a powder. This bhajani (flour) is added to spiced boiling
water with sesame seeds and some butter. The mixture so obtained is kneaded to
a dough, shaped into circular forms using a snacks maker and deep fried.

Though
we get ready made chakli bhajni in grocery shops nowadays, i adhere to the
traditional method of making this bhajni fresh at home. For me, the chakli made
by my mom is the best in the world. I have very fond memories of my childhood
when we three siblings used to sit around mumma, wait and watch each step
eagerly, as our all-time favourite
Diwali snacks was getting prepared. Can recall my mom moving her wrist so
effortlessly while she pressed the chakli batter from the snacks maker to get
those perfect round shaped chaklis. Here I am sharing her recipe of chakli from
scratch as it is my turn now to recreate such memories for my little one.
Dedicating this post to you mumma, tried to replicate your recipe but cannot
ever get the taste of your hands..i guess the secret ingredient is your love J

Making
perfect chakli needs lots of patience and practise. The temperature of oil
needs to be monitored at every stage during a batch while deep frying chakli .
If the temperature of oil is low the chakli will start breaking and lose their
shape and absorb more oil, if the temperature is high you end up in a
non-cooked burnt chakli. I admit that my first attempt of chakli last year was
a disaster. But with practise and patience, you get those perfectly shaped and
perfectly cooked crispy Chaklis.

Preparation
Time: 60 minutes

Cook
time: 60 minutes

Serves:
Makes around 30 chaklis

Ingredients
for Chakli Bhajani( flour)

·6 cups Rice

·3 cups split and skinned Bengal gram (
chana dal)

·1 ½ cups split and skinned Black gram
( dhuli urad dal)

·¾ cups split and skinned green gram (
dhuli moong dal)

·1 cup Coriander seeds( sabut dhaniya)

·½ cup Cumin seeds ( Jeera)

For
the Chakli dough

·2 cups Chakli Bhajani (flour)

·2 cups water

·2 tbsp. Sesame seeds(Til)

·1 1/2 tbsp. melted Butter (makhan)

·1 tbsp. Carom seeds ( ajwain)

·1 1/2 tbsp. Red chili powder (lal
mirch)

·½ tsp. Turmeric powder (Haldi)

·¼ tsp Asafoetida ( hing)

·Salt to taste

·Oil for frying

Method:

1.Roast all the ingredients for Chakli
bhajni individually on a low flame until fragrant. Allow them to cool down and
grind to a powder( flour) in a grind mill.

2.Bring 2 cups of water to a rolling
boil in a heavy bottom sauce pan. Add Sesame seeds, melted butter , salt and
spices (carom seeds , red chili powder , turmeric powder, Asafoetida). Stir and
lower the flame. Add the chakli bhajni . Mix well with a wooden spoon and put
off the flame. Cover and leave it aside for at least 30 minutes.

3. After 30 minutes, add little water and
knead the mixture into a soft dough.

4. Fill the dough into a chakli mould or
a snacks maker fitted with a disc which has a single star shaped cutout.

5. Line the working platform or cutting
board with a parchment paper and press the snacks maker so that the dough comes
out through the star shaped cutout on to the parchment paper.

6. Moving
the wrist into circular motion, shape the pressed dough into spirals as it
comes out. Small spirals with 3 round are easy to handle. Break off the end and
press it lightly into the last coil to ensure it does not come apart later. Make
4-5 such spirals, one batch at a time. If you make too many ahead of time they
will dry up and the spirals may not hold shape.

7.Heat sufficient oil in a frying pan
till moderately hot. To check the readiness of oil, drop a small ball of dough into it. If it sizzles
and comes up to the surface with tiny bubbles around it, within 2-3 seconds
then the oil is just right. If it takes more time, let the oil heat up a little
more.

8. When the oil is ready, pick up the
spirals using a flat spatula, one at a time and slide into the hot oil carefully.
Slip in as many spirals as the frying pan can accommodate comfortably without
overcrowding.

9. Once in the oil leave them untouched for
1 minute or so. Then touch the spirals with a slotted ladle, if the spiral has
turned hard and the colored changed to golden brown, then flip. Fry on the
other side for another 1 minute or so and then remove them using slotted ladle,
shake off excess oil and then place them onto a plate lined with an absorbent paper.

10. Repeat the process till all the dough
has been used up.

11.Let the chaklis cool down completely.
Store them in an airtight container. Enjoy the crunchy tasty Chaklis with hot
cup of tea or coffee.

I hope you would love to give this recipe a try. Do not forget to give your valuable feed back through likes and comments.

5 comments
:

Wow...simple and easy to make perfect Chakli with step by step pictures. A must try for this festive season. Please check http://rarelicious.wordpress.com for more South Indian, millets, kids friendly recipes!

Sorry for the late reply Anamika Agarwal. The chakli fall apart while frying for 2 main reasons, either the temperature of oil while frying is very low , you have to maintain a proper temperature as i have mentioned in the post. Another reason is the amount of butter may be more. figure out the exact reason , if the temperature is fine then you may add little chakli bhajni(flour) to the dough to adjust the extra butter. Hope this works out.